“The Nun,” a horror film released Sept. 7, is not as great as it would seem. The movie is a spinoff of the Conjuring and part of the Conjuring universe. The film is set in 1952 and tells of a demon that resides in a church, killing nuns. The film explains the nun from the conjuring is part of the storyline in the universe it is shared in.

The film starts with two nuns heading to a basement of a church to fight off evil. One nun is killed off-screen, but we know she dies because we see her body being dragged into a dark room screaming. The other nun runs to a high point in the church and hangs herself.
The next day a man, who goes by the name Frenchie (Jonas Bloquet), has come to deliver supplies to the nuns and finds one is hanging outside. The Vatican learns of the incident and dispatches one of their priests, Father Burke, who brings along Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga). Sister Irene is a young novitiate and not a full-fledged nun.

The two meet with Frenchie, who takes them to the church and to the body of the nun. They find the body has been moved from a lying position to a sitting position, and then find a key on the deceased nun’s body. They start to investigate the church, as well as what is going on.
The film wasn’t as scary as the trailers had made it out to be.

One of the bigger problems in the film is before the church was used as a church, it was a castle that belonged to a duke who used it for sacrifices in the name of the devil. The castle became a church because the duke was killed by Vatican troops, but not before releasing a demonic presence on the scene. They sealed the demon with the Christ of blood, but it makes no sense how they obtained it. The demon was released because, during a time of war the church was bombed, the bombs didn’t cause damage somehow but opened the rift that sealed the demon.

The film’s main scare points were the “jump” scares. Even then, the jump scares were presented in such a way that if the viewer was paying attention, it would be easy to anticipate them.

There were many confusing points in the film like what the demon in the church wanted. The film concludes with Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) and leads into The Conjuring.

Fans of the series would enjoy the film if they are fans of the Conjuring universe. Don’t expect too much from the film if you wish for a good scare.